Niki Yang
Niki Yang is an actor, born 1985.
A storyboard artist first, a voice actress second. Niki Hyun Yang trained at Hongik University in Seoul and then at CalArts, and her early professional work was in the art department rather than the booth: she was one of the storyboard artists on Family Guy before moving to Frederator Studios, where Adventure Time was being made.
That is where the second career started. She voices BMO, the small living games console who talks to itself, sings, and treats every crisis as an opportunity to be helpful. The performance is built almost entirely on tone, because BMO's lines are usually simple and the comedy comes from the flat, chipper, unbothered delivery of them. She also plays Lady Rainicorn, who speaks Korean, untranslated, so a portion of Adventure Time's dialogue is only fully available to Korean-speaking viewers. Yang delivers those lines as ordinary conversation rather than as a novelty, which is why the joke never wears thin.
BMO turned out to be permanent. She has carried the character through Adventure Time: Distant Lands, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake and on into Adventure Time: Side Quests, more than fifteen years with the same small blue box. Elsewhere she has been a steady presence in the same corner of American animation: Candy Chiu in Gravity Falls, Chloe's Mom in We Bare Bears, and two recurring parts on Summer Camp Island.
Movies (1)
TV (8)
Where to start with Niki Yang
Start with Adventure Time, and specifically with any BMO-centred episode you can find. The character is the clearest demonstration of what Yang does, an unshakeable good mood applied to situations that do not deserve one. The Lady Rainicorn scenes are worth attention too, because the show never softens the Korean for you.
From there, Adventure Time: Distant Lands opens with a BMO-led special and is the best single showcase in her filmography. Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake is the more grown-up continuation, and Adventure Time: Side Quests keeps the run going.
Outside that world, Gravity Falls is the obvious next step: Candy Chiu is a small part played with real specificity, an awkward kid entirely comfortable being awkward. Summer Camp Island and We Bare Bears round it out, both gentler shows than Adventure Time and both worth a look if the animation itself is what pulled you in.